Urban Legends: The Devil’s Road

The following free article is for entertainment purposes only. It is not intended as scholarly research or as a final authority on the topic.

Welcome to Freaky Friday. Today, we are going to talk about Cossart Road in Pennsylvania, an area associated with spooky tales and urban legends. The area is chock full of urban legend goodness. It is a favorite of legend trippers and has even been featured in a movie.

Cossart Road is a twisting, winding stretch of road near Chadds Ford township in Pennsylvania. The road, which is just a few miles north of the Delaware border, is commonly called The Devil’s Road by locals.

Spooky Signs

At one point, the signs marking the turnoff for Cossart Road were removed from Kennett Turnpike. This only added to the air of mystery and seemed to prove there was some truth to the tales associated with Cossart Road.

Those lucky enough to find the Devil’s Road will encounter No Trespassing signs and No Stopping signs. Apparently, there has been some trouble with vandalization, graffiti, and pranks (such as cross burning, stretching line across the road, etc.)

The Cult House

The cult house is rumored to be on a hillside off Cossart Road. The house is hidden by thick woods and is not visible from the road. The house itself is rumored to be huge—some even call it a mansion—and built of white brick or stone.

Legends claim that the windows are blacked out and/or have inverted crosses hanging in them. Some legends say the windows are cross shaped. Some of the legends place cult meetings at the house. Some have it as a place where Satanic rituals are observed. Other legends say the house is owned by the KKK.

Many versions of the legend insist Cult House is owned by the DuPont family. These legends operate on the rumor that the DuPont family intermarried in order to keep their fortune within the family.

The legends which feature the DuPont family claim that the house was used by the DuPont family as wedding chapel where incestuous marriages were held. The cult house is also rumored to have been used by the DuPont family to hide the horribly deformed children produced by these incestuous unions.

The Trees near Cult House

The location of the cult house is unknown, and I was unable to find any actual pictures of it. (This says a lot, doesn’t it?) However, scholars in Devil Road lore claim the house is about midway up Cossart Road and is marked by some odd vegetation.

These trees grow angling away from the house. Some of the trees even grow away from their natural light source. The odd phenomenon with the trees stops occurring about a quarter mile past The Cult House’s location.

Odder still, among these trees is a tree in which the roots resemble a skull. Urban legends claim that the deformed children of the incestuous DuPont family were put in the cage formed by the roots and left to die of exposure. (Yes, really.)

In other tellings of the legend, the satanists or cultists who use the house for their rituals leave their sacrificial victims here. In paranormal versions of the urban legends, visitors can hear a baby crying near skull tree.

There have also been reports of visitors to Cossart Road encountering numerous animal corpses. The corpses have been gutted and sometimes skinned. In some tellings, the corpses hang from trees and fenceposts. In other tellings, the animal corpses are in piles alongside Cossart road. Tales blame the animal murderers on the cultists.

The Guardians of Cult House

Legend trippers lucky—or unlucky—enough to locate the Cult House will see a guard shack some distance away from the mansion. This guard shack is rumored to be surrounded by red trucks (or black SUVs, depending on which version of the story you hear). Legend trippers who pass by the Cult House too many times will be chased by these guardians.

Some who have been chased claim they were never able to see an actual person inside these vehicles. No accounts I discovered actually recorded a confrontation between a legend tripper and one of the cult house’s guardians. Perhaps this is because legend trippers who are caught are forever imprisoned in The Cult house?

Cossart Road in the Movies

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that the area was actually used as a filming location for a movie. Regardless of the veracity of the urban legends surrounding the area, photographs show it is visually creepy. The movie filmed there was appropriately weird.

M. Night Shyamalan’s 2004 film The Village was filmed in a field off Cossart Road. Here’s the summary:

“The population of a small, isolated countryside village believe that their alliance with the mysterious creatures that inhabit the forest around them is coming to an end.” ~From IMDB

Some things I read suggested M. Night Shyamalan’s filming location choice was inspired by the legends associated with Cossart Road. Other sources say Shyamalan chose this filming location after an unsuccessful search for a filming location in Bucks County Pennsylvania.

Watch the trailer:

Dig Deeper into the Mystery and Madness

Cossart Road is home to some creepy scenery and some even creepier urban legends. If you’d like to watch a condensed version of some of the urban legends related in this post click here. This a short, creepy little video about Devil’s Road, the Cult House, and the DuPont family.

There is also a documentary about Cossart Road. It was produced by the Delaware Valley Paranormal Association. I can’t recommend the film because I haven’t watched it. Though the content does interest me, I didn’t have time to order the video before I ran this post. Click here for trailers and purchase information.

If you enjoy debunking spooky stories, I recommend a visit to this webpage. This person has taken the time and energy to explain the truth about Cossart Road.